How engaged with your brand are the majority of your database contacts? This fundamental question should determine how your entire emarketing communications strategy is structured.

Until recently, email marketers have been under huge commercial pressure internally to continue doing the same 'load and blast' mass email marketing they've always done.

However, for some, response rates are waning as consumers become fussier about the marketing messages they consume. The advent of the intelligent inbox (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo) means ISPs are working hard to ensure only the most wanted email is at the top of the pile.

ISPs are helping recipients to prioritise their inboxes, helping them to de-prioritise or block email that they no longer want. Google priority inbox, for example, prioritises your email automatically based on what you respond to; so encouraging response is now critical to your ongoing relationship with customers.

Without proper targeting, your emails can be seen as spam, becoming de-prioritised or blocked by the recipients, encouraging customer disengagement.